Computer games.

Video games are incredibly popular, as they can allow people to escape from the problems of everyday life. I myself, play video games regularly, for at least an hour a day to help me relax. The reason it is so relaxing, is because it allows us to escape into an entirely different world. For instance, a game called oblivion, allows use to create your own character in a huge vast virtual world, and then just simply raie your character to become a warrior magician, thief and other various sorts in a medievil inspired world, something which is practically impossible to do in real life.

In my opinion, video gaming doesn't make you more violent. It is well known that there have been many cases where children have played extremely violent games and then recreated what they saw in real life. A common factor however, is that these children are usually incredibly underage for these games, with 8 yr olds playing an 18+ game, or the child suffers from a mental condition. However, there is a good side to video games. One of the most critised game series Grand Theft Auto, helped an 11 yr old girl pull her family to safety after their car flipped in a car accident. More on this story can be found in the link below:

http://www.destructoid.com/grand-theft-auto-helps-young-girl-save-family-102304.phtml

As for games making you more isolated, it really depends on the type of person. I myself, regularly play games, however I always find time to go out with my friends on weekends, and I have a very strong social life. Some of my other friends however, do nothing but play video games throughout their spare time. I think really it depends on the person, as to whether they enjoy the games enough to stay in and isolate themselves from the outside world. This can also apply to online gaming. I use the xbox live service for the xbox 360, and I play online very competitively, and I am reasonably skilled at these games. However I have friend who, yet again, spend almost all their time on these online games, playing and playing and generally, they are vastly better than me, however they do not enjoy it as much as me, because they take it seriously. This is possibly because they do not know what else to do.